Bizarre, twisted world

Last Sunday’s Herald-Sun chronicled the disturbing nature of our state and national governments: refugee children traumatized by forced separations; meager pay “supplements” for chronically underpaid teachers; a government shutdown if the president can’t force Congress to pay for the wall he promised Mexico would pay for; “more than 40” lifetime appointments to district and circuit court judges described as, “the most extremist slate of judges we’ve ever seen”; and a last-minute state constitution amendment for November that would allow the legislature (not the governor), to “control any executive, legislative, or judicial appointment.”

After reading about each of these dystopian catastrophes, one might think things couldn’t be worse. Unfortunately, that would be untrue.

On p. 3A one headline declared, “NC Consumers could see $5B coal ash cleanup bill.” WHAT?! The story states, “The company pleaded guilty to federal environmental crimes in 2015 for its coal ash handling, and thus admitted to “pervasive, system-wide short-comings,” the N.C. Utilities Commission said in its ruling last month.” The article describes how state utilities regulators decided last month that Duke Energy could charge customers the first $778 million of what will likely be a $5 billion total cost to clean up the horrific environmental damage caused by Duke Energy’s “pervasive, system-wide” federal environmental crimes.

Put cruel people in cages

I’m appalled that I continue to read about dogs being seized in our state because of dogfighting. When will this end? When will our laws in the state of North Carolina change? This is 2018.

There is no room for cruelty to animals, and these people who are arrested and charged with dogfighting and cruelty aren’t serving time in jail .

The law needs to change now and we need to petition to save innocent pit bulls from being euthanized. Why is North Carolina one of the top states for dogfighting? People need to be held accountable for their cruelty. Let them be held in cages and see how they like it.

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I have appreciated the contributions that McKinney advertising company and its Chair Brad Brinegar have made to revitalizing a part of Durham’s downtown.It’s too bad I cannot say the same about his recent column criticizing the Durham-Orange light rail project (DOLRT).